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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past gets a reverse-engineered clone

By - | Views: 32,429

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the 1991 classic from Nintendo has been reverse-engineered to bring it natively to more platforms. Nintendo are no doubt warming up their lawyers. Available on GitHub under the MIT license, it notes the game is fully playable from start to finish and it does need the original ROM for the resources, so it doesn't include the copyrighted assets.

Some extra features were added too including:

  • Support for pixel shaders.
  • Support for enhanced aspect ratios of 16:9 or 16:10.
  • Higher quality world map.
  • Support for MSU audio tracks.
  • Secondary item slot on button X (Hold X in inventory to select).
  • Switching current item with L/R keys.

Looks like it's supported to run it across Linux, macOS and Windows too!

You can see their own side-by-side comparison in the below video:

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Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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24 comments
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tpau Feb 1
Now we just need a few modders that create higher resolutioon textures of the same visual style
I just compiled it and play a little with it, it's very nice.
Habitually I prefer to play retro games in their native ratio, here 4:3.
But I tried 16:9 feature for Zelda 3 and I have to say it looks good, it's not shocking.
Adding a Shader like crt-royale and it's not far from perfect.
It would be cool if this engine became the centerpiece of a Zelda-Classic-like modding community. ZC yielded some really neat fan-made game projects and high-quality reusable game assets but for a long time seemed limited by the engine (which started as a Zelda 1 clone).
jrgiacone Feb 1
Is it better to compile on the desktop and move the folder over to the steam deck, or would it be best to compile on the steam deck?
olaf Feb 2
It's playable on PC?
Luticus Feb 2
Quoting: jrgiaconeIs it better to compile on the desktop and move the folder over to the steam deck, or would it be best to compile on the steam deck?

That's what I did. Just compiled it on my Debian machine via the make command and created a directory ~/zelda3 then moved the zelda3 binary, the zelda3.ini file, and then created a ~/zelda3/tables directory and moved the zelda3_assets.dat file into it. Those are the only 3 files you need to make it work, everything else seems to be unnecessary. Then I made a tarball by moving to the home directory and used tar cvzf zelda3.tar.gz zelda3. Then I used scp from my steam deck to transfer with:

scp [email protected]:~/zelda3.tar.gz .

Note the dot (.) at the end.

Next I extracted the tarball to my memory card via tar xvzf zelda3.tar.gz /run/media/memorycardmountpoint

Finally I added it to my steam setup as a non-steam game, and used steamgriddb plugin in decky loader to grab artwork and such for the game.
Luticus Feb 2
Quoting: olafIt's playable on PC?

yes
const Feb 2
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
QuoteNintendo are no doubt warming up their lawyers.
That makes Nintendo's lawyers sound somewhat robotic. But I'm sure that wasn't Liam's intent.

Damn, I bet one could make a nice Nintendo-like rpg about a person who developed a Nintendo fan-game and then fights their way through thousands of lawyers. CEO bossfights and all.
Jpxe Feb 2
I hope they make a Flatpak sometime for easy installation
Quoting: JpxeI hope they make a Flatpak sometime for easy installation

Or an AppImage.
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